


Taken by the Lethe

by AliaMael



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst, Drug Use, Gen, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:15:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29587104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliaMael/pseuds/AliaMael
Summary: Hypnos might be the guardian of the Pool of Styx, but it's not that river he's bound to.It's the Lethe.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Taken by the Lethe

When Hypnos was young, very young, and confused about his role –about _what_ he was– his mother sat with him, her smile faint but kind enough to make him feel loved.

"You are Sleep Incarnate, my child," she had said. "While us Gods can survive without sleep, mortals cannot. They need you to give them strength. Without you being able to reach out to their minds, they could not get rest."  
"What about dreams?" Hypnos had asked.  
"Dreams are their own world. _Your_ world, as it is. In dreams mortals can experience things they would not while awake, and this too give them strength, because it makes them grow. And in dreams, my child, you are more powerful than any other God."

Hypnos was young and he didn't know if that was more flattering or scary.

Time passed.

Hypnos was still young, but he was slowly starting to grow into his power. He loved visiting his brother's dreams to play with him even when they slept. Except…

"What are you talking about?" Thanatos was asking.  
"Well, last night, you said–"  
"I never said _that_!"

Hypnos could have thought his brother was lying, except… except it kept happening. He would bring up something they did together in a dream, or some secret they shared, and Thanatos, each and every time, denied.

(Sometimes, Hypnos would go into his mother's dreams instead. When he talked about what they did, she would smile at him and congratulate him on his imagination.)

Time passed.

"Mom, what _is_ my role?"  
"You exist so that mortals can sleep."  
"But how does it _work_?"  
"You just have to exist, that's how it is."  
"And what about dreams?"  
"Dreams are senseless fantasies. I suppose you can grant them to mortals if you wish, but you needn't bother, for they are not necessary."

Hypnos didn't dare tell his mother she was wrong, because how could he explain that she had been the one to tell him the truth before forgetting it?

Time passed.

"Hypnos, you really need to stop mixing up dreams and reality. You have a job to do, and it's neither taking naps nor telling fanciful stories!"

Except that if he didn't sleep, he couldn't reach mortals' minds. Except that for him dreams had always been real.

But everyone forgot. Everything he touched seemed doomed to disappear.

(Maybe he shouldn't talk to people he loved. Maybe he was dangerous.)

Time passed.

Hypnos loved poppies. Pretty flowers, able to pull someone into sleep… or dull the sharp edges of reality.

It was easier to float through life unable to tell when he was awake and when he was sleeping, given that people already thought he didn't know the difference.

And after all, was he not supposed to be all-powerful in dreams? So if he was dreaming _all the time_ he didn't need to feel so bad, right?

(Right?)

Time passes.

Hypnos smiles at everything from the fuzzy warmth of living in a dream, and if people think he's clumsy because moving seems so _distant_ , or dumb because thinking is so _tiring_ , well, who cares?

It's not like it's real anyway.


End file.
